FINE ARTS
Kory Kolis ’15, The Woman with the Golden Blood: A Portrait of My Mother, 2020, watercolor, tissue paper, and beeswax on plywood, 20x24 inches.
CANCER NEVER HAD THEM This year’s Nobel Conference, “Cancer
experiences with cancer are reflected in
“I cannot imagine the misery my
in the Age of Biotechnology,” provided
the works. “We kept the criteria pretty
mother endured contemplating that
opportunity to explore the experience
open, so we received work that is realistic
choice,” Kolis says. In the end, the drug
of cancer through artwork. The juried
and concrete along with abstract works.”
was covered. His layered work is his
Class of 2015 grad Kory Kolis’s
interpetation of what the family endured.
Never Had Me: Views by Artists” featured
piece, The Woman with the Gold Blood: A
Each work contains such a story, as
works from 33 artists showing how cancer
Portrait of My Mother, depicts his cancer
well as an artist who crafted it into art.
has affected them. Seven of the artists are
story. During his second year at Gustavus,
Paired with a complementary exhibit of
alumni and four are current students.
his mother was diagnosed with chronic
works in the Hillstrom and Shogren-
Director Don Myers ’83 felt the Nobel
myeloid leukemia. The drug that could
Meyer collections by artists who had
Conference was an opportunity to express
save her life came with a $70,000 price
cancer, in-person and virtual visitors
the connection between science and art.
tag. For more than a week, while the
gained new understandings of the ways
“Probably each person you meet has had
insurance company processed the claim,
cancer affects us all.
cancer or a very close friend or family
his mother considered forgoing the drug
member who has,” he says. Our varied
in order to not bankrupt her family.
Visit the exhibit virtually at gustavus. edu/finearts/hillstrom/exhibitions.
GUSTAVUS QUARTERLY | WINTER 2020
Hillstrom Museum of Art exhibit “Cancer
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